NFTs Roar Back to 85 Million Weekly Sales as Utility Takes the Crown in Web3 Revival

Web3 Deep Dive: NFTs, DeFi, and Cryptocurrency Explained podcast.

Hey folks, Crypto Willy here, your best buddy diving deep into Web3 this week leading up to January 13, 2026. Let's unpack the buzz on NFTs, DeFi, and crypto—it's been a wild ride!

Kicking off with NFTs, the market's roaring back from the dead. KuCoin News reports weekly sales exploded 30% to $85 million in the first week of January, ending months of slump, thanks to hype around Zama Protocol's OG NFT claim portal launching January 5 on Ethereum. CoinGecko data via MEXC shows NFT market cap jumped over $220 million since New Year's, with hundreds of projects like those on NFT Price Floor seeing triple-digit price pops. But hold up—it's no full revival. The Block's 2025 recap pegs total volume at $5.5 billion, down 37% from 2024, and market cap shriveled to $2.4 billion. NFT Paris got canned January 5 due to funding woes, per Ju Blog, while Nike dumped its RTFKT NFT unit in December 2025, says World Footwear. Blue-chips like CryptoPunks (floor at 29 ETH) and Bored Ape Yacht Club (5.5 ETH) are quiet, but utility's king: sports NFTs surged 337% to $71.1 million in Q3 2025 per AInvest, Bitcoin inscriptions hit 80 million with Ordinal Punks fetching six figures, and RWAs like Collector Crypt's Pokémon card tokenization are hot. Bankless predicts Ethereum Foundation drops its own NFT collection soon, Coinbase grabs NFT IP, and games drive 33% of action via x402 standards.

DeFi's simmering alongside, with Flow blockchain chasing growth points and Zora pivoting to "content as tokens." Broader crypto's rebounding—ETH at $3,135, SOL at $142 per KuCoin—lifting AI tokens, memes, Layer 2s, and RWAs toward a $45 billion NFT projection.

Shift's clear: speculation's out, utility in—think AI NFTs, Web3 gaming, and regulatory wins like SEC dropping OpenSea probe. Bitcoin NFTs via Galaxy Digital could hit $4.5 billion. Pudgy Penguins grew 3x on merch vibes.

Thanks for tuning in, crypto crew—catch you next week for more! This has been a Quiet Please production; for me, check out Quiet Please Dot A I. Stay decentralized!

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This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI